The black cardigan of fate
by PilsenPiloswine
Summary: After graduating from high school, Yaguchi faces a lonely and boring life which doesn't seem to end anytime soon. He could just blame his past self for the miserable existence he's leading, just when he resigned to his unimpressive future, a oddly familiar old cardigan pops out of his closet and it will be the switch leading to the so anguished change he was waiting for. [FutureAU]


It was about eight in the evening, in a small complex apartment in the suburban area of Tokyo, Kyosuke Yaguchi was bored, sitting in front of the TV, zapping from a channel to the other in the hope to find something that would entertain him for a bit.

Those monotone, lonely evenings became his routine since he started working and left his family house to go live on his own. His wage as employee only allowed him to rent a cheap studio apartment where the heating system worked just on luck. After graduating from high school, he decided he would take on the college path and become an economist. He was confident his soccer skill would guarantee him a scholarship and an easy access to the most prestigious universities in the country, partly making up for his low grades in several subjects. He even attempted entry tests to study abroad, sure that some college would have taken him in.

Kyosuke's ambitions were running high as he applied for Kyoto and Tokyo Universities, which were ranked first and second in Japan's best universities, then he took a GPA test and attempted his entry at the _University of Chicago_, _Duke University_ and even_ Stanford_ in the USA, since they were proven to have the best Economics programs worldwide.

His dreams were crushed before they could even begin. With a _3.1 GPA_ and a level _B1_ of English fluency, he couldn't even think about getting past the gates of these American universities, it didn't matter how high rated he was a soccer player, his applications were rejected without a second chance.

His luck was challenged even in Japanese universities, where he miserably failed the entry tests and was thus forced to enroll in the Economics program at _Otemon Gakuin University_ in Osaka. There, he attended a full semester before eventually deciding to drop out due to his low scores and high exam failing rate.

After spending a year helping his uncle running a hardware shop, he got a job interview with a car selling company in Tokyo where he got in as administrative staff. He was in charge to manage orders, supplies and occasionally help with customer care. It wasn't the job of a lifetime but the pay wasn't bad and working hours weren't exhausting, so he decided he would try to stick with the position waiting for some better offer to come up.

Six years later, nothing had changed and he didn't find a better place to work.

Outside the protective environment of high school and family, Kyosuke was for the first time, faced with his lack of skills in human socialization. Back when he was a student, he would pretend to be nice to others just for the sake of surviving, hoping to become as popular as his cousin was. He showed his spoiled and arrogant attitude towards few of his mates who, for the best of his luck, accepted it. It was already hard pretending all the time when he was in high school, but the pressure of work and daily life problems just made pretending impossible for him anymore.

Even his arrogant attitude lit down bit by bit, as he bitterly learnt that getting angry would lead to nothing but terrible migraines by the end of the day. He slowly grew into an apathetic, grumpy man, he didn't bind to any co-worker and most of the human contact he had were occasional calls and text messages with Kashima or Toono. The two were living happily together in Osaka, sharing an apartment together and having the happy couple life. This bothered him to say the least, seems that his plan of snatching Toono from Ju in an attempt to get revenge, not only didn't work, but fired back at him mercilessly. The overly popular _Yacchan_ was just a memory buried in the depth of a dusty yearbook and he could just blame himself for the life he was now leading.

Kyosuke turned the news channel on, not actually listening to what the reporter was saying. He was distracted by the low temperature which seemed to have invaded the room, He stood up to check on the heater. It wasn't working and it was December, speaking of being miserable. He wanted to take a hammer and smash the damn thing, at least it got a good reason for not working but he knew far too well he wouldn't have money to fix it later. It was now almost nine in the evening, the repair technician wouldn't be available anyway. He took a deep breath to sedate the growing rage mounting in his brain and went in his bedroom to take a blanket. The heating system worked for over a month straight, which was odd given the conditions he was forced to live in.

He opened the bottom drawer of his wardrobe, which actually contained almost anything from clothes to spare electric cables and even pans, being the only significant piece of storage furniture in the house was a hard job. Yaguchi started to dig in the mass of objects randomly stored in the drawer, cursing himself for never learning to be tidier. He took out an old laptop he had long promised to throw away but never did and behind that he found a paper bag. Fondling it, he noticed it was soft inside and thought he eventually managed to find the so agonized blanket.

The white bag had turned slightly grey at the corners, despite looking old, it was still sealed with two paper clips. Yaguchi frowned, he didn't recall to have ever sealed the blanket inside, but he shook it off and opened the bag anyway, what he found inside wasn't what he was looking for but could as well act as a substitute: there was a black cardigan, it still had the tag on

"Just when the hell did I buy this?" thought Yaguchi, inspecting the cardigan.

Taking a closer look at the piece of clothing, he noticed it was one of the cardigans that were part of the school uniforms back to when he was at _Morimori Academy_, it was part of the winter clothing there. How, odd, he didn't recall to have ever bought a new one. Moreover, he was sure all his high school clothes were stored somewhere at his parents apartment thus he had no idea on how that ended up in his Tokyo apartment. A cold chill down his spine shook all the doubts away as he tore the tag off and put the cardigan on immediately. As his arms slid through the sleeves and the front buttons were closed, Yaguchi was overcome with an odd warmth sensation. Probably it was just his brain playing tricks. It wasn't a blanket but that would do, at least for the rest of the night.

Sitting back on the couch, Yaguchi heard the distinct sound of paper crumpling, he probably forgot to take another tag out of the cardigan. Lowering his look, he noticed the corner of an envelope sticking out the right pocket, he took it in his hands. It was still sealed, on the back there was written Yaguchi in blue ink. He could not recognize the handwriting as one of his parents, probably one of his former teachers wrote that. He didn't pay much attention to that and tossed the paper aside on the floor, focusing back on the TV.

The presenter was talking about a series of mysterious paranormal effects happened in a remote province of the UK, despite he wasn't interested in that kind of stories, Yaguchi followed the tale leaning with his cheek against the couch's arm. He was feeling warm, kind of relaxed it was just as all the anger and boringness form moments earlier had vanished away. Just like that he felt his eyelids getting heavier and for probably the first time in years, he dozed off to a peaceful sleep.


End file.
